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Public Domain Benjamin Lay painted by William Williams in 1790 M arcus Rediker is the author of the new book, The Fearless Benjamin Lay: The Quaker Dwarf Who Became the First Revolutionary Abolitionist . Investigative journalist and filmmaker Lindsay Beyerstein spoke with him about it. Lindsay Beyerstein: Who was Benjamin Lay? Marcus Rediker: Benjamin Lay was a very important, although almost completely unknown, abolitionist, a man who took an extremely militant stand against slavery two generations before an anti-slavery movement developed. But he was actually much more than an abolitionist. He was also a person who decided to live outside the burgeoning capitalist economy. He made his own clothes, he grew his own food, he was a vegetarian, he was a pioneer regarding animal rights, just an altogether extraordinary person. He was doing all these things 250 years ago. How did Lay come to his anti-slavery activism? It was essentially a three-part process. First, there is Lay's...

(AP Photo/The Monitor, Joel Martinez) People protest in front of the Whole Women's Health clinic Saturday, Oct/ 4, 2014 in McAllen, Texas. Abortion-rights lawyers are predicting "a showdown" at the U.S. Supreme Court after federal appellate judges allowed full implementation of a law that has closed more than 80 percent of Texas' abortion clinics. This book review is from the Fall 2014 issue of The American Prospect magazine. Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights By Katha Pollitt 258 pp. Picador. $25 I n August, a swarm of police officers was dispatched to the scene of a miscarriage at a Dallas high school, after a dead fetus was found in the girls' lavatory. Police officers combed the school in search of a female “suspect.” The investigation concluded only when the authorities satisfied themselves that the miscarriage had been spontaneous. We might have known it would come to this. Abortion access has decreased dramatically in Texas since the state’s restrictive anti-choice law went into...